Two week's ago I shared my getting an echocardiogram done (which was normal btw); the next day I did an exercise stress test, which was also new for me and quite interesting so thought I'd share. They have you lie on a table and get hooked up to ekg wires, then walk on a treadmill for a few minutes (I didn't have chest pain or any symptoms, I don't know what they do if I would have had problems).
It started quite slow with minimal elevation for a couple minutes, and then they increase speed and incline until you reach whatever target heart rate number you are aiming for - mine was 135 or higher. At around 9 and 1/2 minutes I was walking 4.2 mph on an incline of 16%, good grief that wasn't easy and it showed me that I need to be adding more incline to my everyday walks! I did good, felt good - but even so the ekg showed some abnormal numbers so they scheduled me for a nuclear stress test a few days later. The exercise stress test only took under 45 minutes, just wear comfortable clothes you can exercise in.
The nuclear stress test is basically the same as far as the treadmill portion, but they inject you with a radioactive tracer to measure the blood flow around your heart before you exercise. I was there for a couple hours, a lot of the time there is spent waiting for the tracer to take effect (I didn't feel a thing, no side effects - worst part is they put an IV in my arm and I'm a baby so hated that part!). They take pictures of your heart using a special camera, I had to lie in a machine with my arms overhead for 7 minutes while the camera did its thing. I was hooked up to an EKG and walked the exact same pattern as the exercise stress test, again I reached almost 10 minutes. Back to the camera room for another 5 minutes of the machine taking heart pictures and I was free to go. I'm happy to say that test was negative and I've been cleared of any cardiac problems.
The 'downside' to all of this is that I now have no excuse to not exercise harder and add some speed and incline to my walks LOL!!
Hope this helps if you have to have a stress test in the future, really it wasn't hard and I'm glad to now have a baseline if any issues come up in the future.
2.17.25: catching up
2.17.24: words
2.17.23: random acts of kindness re-run
2.17.22: random acts of kindness day
2.17.21: banana pudding tart
2.17.20: make a paper gift box
2.17.19: 🔥 week 7
2.17.18: nail art
2.17.17: ombre nail art
2.17.16: making paper crowns
Hi Jill
ReplyDeleteDeb Turner here so glad to hear that you got good news . Keeping Dave in prayers that his surgery goes well